


Roaming in the Gloaming

by tuppenny



Series: Growing Together [16]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Children, F/M, Fluff, Fluff fluff and more fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-17 01:03:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14822282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuppenny/pseuds/tuppenny
Summary: In which Eleanor directs the family in a dance.





	Roaming in the Gloaming

**Author's Note:**

> Click [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qU75Xgmlww) to listen to the song mentioned in the fic.
> 
> And, way more importantly, click [***here***](http://passionslipsaway.tumblr.com/post/174478517182/okay-ellie-girl-jack-said-setting-the-record) for a beautiful drawing of this story!

**March 1912**

(Ellie is 3, Nicky is 6 months)

“Daddy, dance!” Three-year-old Eleanor tugged at Jack’s hand to try to shift him off the couch.

“I’m tired, Bunny,” he said, his eyes half-closed. 

“No,” Ellie said, pouting. “Put—put—put the tolla on, Daddy! Come dance.” She held Jack’s fingers with both of her hands and jumped up and down. “Stop being tired!” 

Jack closed his eyes all the way and pretended to snore, drawing an indignant huff from Ellie. “No! No sleeping!” She scrambled onto the couch and straddled Jack’s lap, reaching her hands up to pat at his face. “Wake up! Wake up!” When Jack didn’t respond, she frowned, thought for a second, and started kissing him repeatedly. 

“Hey there, what’s goin’ on?” Jack said, reopening his eyes and feigning confusion as Ellie pressed kisses to his mouth and nose.

Ellie lit up when she saw his eyes were open again. “Stay awake, Daddy!” Ellie said, patting his cheek. “I wanna dance! Come dance!” 

Jack moved Ellie back onto the couch and scrubbed at his face with a calloused hand. “Oof,” he said, slowly levering himself off the couch and crossing over to the corner of the room where they’d set up the Victrola they’d bought for Christmas. “Is Nicky gonna dance, too?” Jack asked, setting up the gramophone. 

“Nickyyyy!” Ellie squealed, running around the coffee table to squat down in front of her six-month-old brother, who was army-crawling his way across the carpet to Katherine. “Come dance, Nicky.” Nicholas paused and looked up at his big sister, who was blocking his progress towards reaching the stuffed animal he wanted. Ellie smiled and patted his head. “Mommy, you an’ Nicky need ta dance, too,” she commanded, turning around to look at Katherine, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, making encouraging noises at her son. 

“An’ Mitzi,” Ellie added, running back to the couch and flopping onto the family’s fluffy black cat, which had been happily minding its own business. “C’mere, Mitzi,” she said, wrapping her arms around the cat and tugging it off the couch until its back paws were dragging on the floor. “Dance with me.”

“I don’t think Mitzi likes dancing very much, Ellie,” Katherine said gently, thanking her lucky stars—and not for the first time, either—that Jack had somehow adopted what was surely the most tolerant cat in the world. 

Eleanor pushed out her lower lip and hugged Mitzi close, forcing Katherine to intervene. “It’s lunchtime for Mitzi,” Katherine explained. “You have to let her go. You don’t want her to be hungry, do you?” 

“No,” Ellie said reluctantly, letting Mitzi drop to the floor with an unceremonious whoomp. The cat skittered off into a different room, far away from little, grabby hands.

“Okay, Bunny,” Katherine said, leaning forward to kiss Eleanor on the cheek. “Let’s dance.” She turned back to look at Nicholas, who was still steadily working his way across the floor, and blinked in surprise at how far he’d gotten. Sometimes she forgot how mobile he was. Verbally, he was far behind where Ellie had been at his age, but physically, he was leagues ahead. 

Smiling down at her son, Katherine returned to the task at hand. “Come here, little man,” she cooed, scooping Nicholas up in her arms and handing him the toy bear he wanted. He shoved the bear’s ear into his mouth and started gumming away at it, his wide brown eyes fixed on Katherine’s face. “What song are we dancing to, muffin?” Katherine asked Eleanor, who was readjusting Nicky’s sock. 

“Ooh!” She said, dropping Nicky's foot and scampering over to Jack’s side. “Play the silly song, Daddy!” She wrapped her arms around his leg and pressed kisses to his knee as he sorted through the phonograph records to find the one that Ellie wanted.

“Okay, Ellie-girl,” Jack said, setting the record to play and reaching for his daughter’s hands. “Here we go,” he said, as the cheery music began and Harry Lauder’s thick Scottish brogue began to fill the living room. She placed her feet atop his and let him waltz her around the room, 4/4 tempo notwithstanding, giggling as he started to sing along with the chorus. 

Katherine joined in the singing not long after, bouncing Nicky up and down and rocking side to side as her baby stopped eating his teddy bear in order to smile and bob his head. “You like that, sweet pea?” Katherine asked, nuzzling him and giving him kisses until he giggled. 

“Mommy, stop!” Ellie ordered, letting go of one of Jack’s hands to wag her finger at Katherine. “No kissing, just dancing!” 

“Okay, Ellie,” Katherine said, trying very hard not to laugh as she made eye contact with Jack. “Like this?” She went back to rocking side to side, stumbling slightly as she stepped on the teddy bear that Nicholas had just dropped. 

“Yes,” Eleanor said, nodding in satisfaction. She turned back to Jack and reached up to him. “Spin me, Daddy!” 

“How ‘bout a please?” Jack said sternly, although he was already picking Eleanor up. 

“Please?” She said as he settled her on his right hip and smoothed the skirt of her dress. 

“I’d love to,” Jack said, starting to twirl in a tight corkscrew, making Ellie shriek with laughter. 

“Faster, faster!” She begged, clutching at his shirt and pressing her head into his shoulder.

“Rrrrroamin’ in the gloooooamin’,” Jack belted along with the song as he whirled around and around, and Ellie screamed, her short ringlets flying. 

The song ended all too soon, and Jack put Eleanor down, both of them staggering slightly. Eleanor wobbled and then fell onto the floor, breaking into uncontrollable giggles. Nicky watched his sister, utterly fascinated, and then he started laughing, too, clapping his hands in excitement. 

“Tickle time!” Jack yelled, crouching down to start tickling Eleanor and press deliberately wet kisses to her arms and cheeks. 

“Eeeeee,” Ellie squealed, rolling on the floor as Jack tickled her mercilessly. “Mommy, help! Help me, help!” 

Katherine chuckled, put Nicky down, and went over to Eleanor. “Okay, muffin,” she said, “Mommy’s here to help.” But instead of stopping her husband, she joined him, growling like a monster and then pulling up Eleanor’s skirt to blow a raspberry on the preschooler’s round tummy. “Is that what you wanted, Ellie?”

“Noooooo,” Ellie said, gasping for air. “Too many tickles! Stop!”

Both Jack and Katherine stopped immediately, smiling down at Eleanor as she caught her breath and stopped squirming. Ellie popped up mere seconds later, flinging her arms around Katherine’s neck and kissing her mother’s ear before dashing over to Jack and tugging him back to the Victrola.

“Again!” Ellie demanded, pointing up at the gramophone. “Play it again, Daddy! Spin me an’ sing the silly song!” 

“Okay, astoreen,” he said, rising to his feet and helping Katherine to hers. She smiled at him as he did so and laid a hand to his arm as he turned to walk to Eleanor. Jack paused briefly at Katherine's touch and sent his wife a questioning look. 

“I love you, Jack,” she said quietly, and he smiled, lifting her hand from his arm and bringing it to his lips, replying to her words with a gentle kiss. 

“He’s not Jack,” Eleanor said impatiently, stamping her foot on the hardwood floor. “He’s Daddy!” 

“You’re right, muffin,” Katherine said, her eyes flicking to the little girl whose curly auburn hair, dark brown eyes, and outspoken stubbornness marked her unmistakably as Katherine’s daughter. “He’s your daddy and he’s Nicky’s daddy. But do you know what else he is?” She asked, her eyes returning to Jack, who met her gaze with quiet tenderness. “He’s my own dear love,” she said softly, her attention momentarily on him and him alone.

Jack beamed and pulled Katherine in for a real kiss this time, both of them smiling into each other as they heard Ellie’s exasperated sigh. Dancing could wait. For this very brief moment, dancing could wait.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a reminder to check out Anna's [~~*~amazing~*~~ drawing](http://passionslipsaway.tumblr.com/post/174478517182/okay-ellie-girl-jack-said-setting-the-record) of the Kellys having a dance party in their living room. (And if you liked this, Anna and I have a pretty cool Newsies collaboration project in the works, too, which'll be cross-posted to both here and tumblr... stay tuned!!!)
> 
> (Anna also does commissions if you're interested; she drew me Jack & Kath & Mitzi for my birthday and I hung it on my wall :3 )


End file.
